Director of Public Prosecutions v Lloyd

[2015] VCC 1161

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR -14-01405

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

PATRICK LLOYD

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE GUCCIARDO
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	20 August 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Lloyd
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 1161

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr G. Martin	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Offender	Ms T. Hartnett

HIS HONOUR:

1Patrick Lloyd, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence and three charges of possession of a drug of dependence.  A very detailed summary of the offence was tendered on the plea and will be returned on the court file. 

2For the purposes of this sentence it will suffice to describe the circumstances of the offences this way.  The police in late 2013 executed a search warrant on a factory in Bentleigh.  You leased part of the factory and stored two cars there amongst other possessions.  Inside this area police found various amounts of drugs which indicated that you were trafficking methylamphetamines and possess MDMA, codeine and oxycodone.

3Police found telephones, drugs, secreted in both cars in blister packs and zip packs, as well as $3000 in cash.  Police then searched your home and in a safe in your bedroom they found zip lock bags of methylamphetamine and other drugs.  They also found a bag of MDMA and digital scales.  The amount of methylamphetamine found had a total weight of 448.58 grams in varying degrees of purity, usually quite low. 

4You also possessed 3.1 grams of MDMA, 7.44 grams of cocaine, 58 OxyNorm tablets and 52 Endone tablets, both lots containing oxycodone.  Other items weighed 1.3 grams containing a combination of methylamphetamine and/or cocaine and/or MDMA.

5You were arrested on 19 December 2013.  Ultimately, in May you have entered your plea of guilty.  At that time you had spent 29 days in pre-sentence detention having been bailed in January 2014.  Your plea of guilty will attach a discount by operation of law and I accept is accompanied by significant measure of remorse. This aspect, however, is problematic in the sense that more recent matters were mentioned, quite properly, which indicated you had relapsed into drug use. 

6In my view when a relapse into drug occurs that does not necessarily indicate little or no remorse in relation to the activity of trafficking.  I accept that despite the relapse into use and subsequent minor offences there is a level of regret and remorse which attaches to your plea.

7You are 24 years of age, having been 22 at the time of the offences and although strictly speaking not a youthful offender, still a young man.  Most importantly you have no prior criminal history.  Pending matters which were mentioned properly have been dealt with recently.  I adjourned this sentence until those matters were dealt with.  I have been informed that in relation to those matters (which encompassed the use of ice in committing indictable offences whilst on bail and dealing with proceeds of crime) you were sentenced to 14 days imprisonment, which amounted to the time that you had already served.  There was another charge of possess ice and some other driving offences for which you were fined.

8Drug trafficking is an insidious trade which damages the fabric of our society generating the need for criminal conduct, damaging the lives and health of individual users, shattering the hope of families and young people in particular, destroying work, academic and social lives along the way.  It is conduct which the community rightly regards as abhorrent and unacceptable.  It is prevalent, unfortunately, and worth of denunciation and punishment.  Those who would engage in such trafficking must be deterred and the community protected.  Perpetrators should expect appropriate punishment for such a serious offence which carries a 15 year maximum as a penalty.  Possession of a drug of dependence carrying a maximum penalty of five years.

9I take into account your personal circumstances and history.  You enjoy the tenacious support of your family. Your parents were in court as your sister and friends were.  You went into remand custody as a 22 year old for the first time and no doubt that experience had a salutary impact.  You were then bailed with strict conditions including a curfew and requirements to undergo the CISP program.  You reported having used methamphetamine for about two years and that you wished to access drug counselling.

10Bernard Healy, an experienced psychologist, assessed you and that assessment identified issues with grief and loss and recommended counselling.  You were bailed to your parent's home and according to Graded Services program progress report made reference to drug and alcohol assessment and your progress.  You attended all appointments and engaged appropriately with your treatment plan and continued working full time as a scaffolder.

11However, after this matter had been agreed upon in terms of a plea in May 2015, in June, your partner of seven years ended your relationship.  You had intended to propose marriage to her and this personal setback was said to have triggered a relapse into ice use.

12In late June you were charged with possession and use of ice and realising that you relapsed you re-engaged with the drug agency counselling you had seen whilst you were on bail, off your own bat.  You attended one appointment but in early July you were again arrested for possession of ice.  You have been in custody since that arrest.  In relation to this later matter I have just referred to the matters that were dealt with in the Magistrates' Court. 

13You were born in Melbourne of one of four siblings.  Both of your parents are retired and you reside with them.  Your father is the carer for an older brother who is in receipt of a Disability Support Pension due to his condition of ADHD and being on the Asperger's Spectrum.  This brother's disability has created a difficult family environment for many years with social, family and educational life severely impacted by the stressful, unpredictable and chaotic circumstances of every day.

14This tension has, no doubt, had a disabilitating effect on you who had to intervene in violent behaviours and volatile circumstances on a regular basis.  This fraught family circumstances made the existing grief within the family worse.  That grief was due to the untimely loss of you 17 year old brother when you were ten. 

15This death shattered the family.  The burden felt by you led to your cannabis use by the age of 15.  Despite you lack of academic endeavour at 16 you commenced an apprenticeship as a carpenter, which you completed.  Just as you entered meaningful employment that opportunity seemed to be taken away and your drug use escalated at this time.

16The references which I have read and taken into account speak of you as a hardworking, reliable, trustworthy, young man full of potential.  They each attest to your level of remorse at your behaviour.  A reference was also received from Taskforce, a community agency which provides counselling and support for individuals affected by drug use.  Its outreach worker has written of your potential and significant insight and remorse.  A letter was also received from the property services manager of Corplex which employed you as a carpenter/labourer for the past nine months up to July.  You were said to be committed, professional and hardworking and the writer extended his willingness to gain employment once this matter is resolved.

17Relapse for someone like you caught in the spiral of drug use is not a rare thing.  Rather, to be expected of vulnerable and susceptible young people.  I have obtained a report from Community Correctional Services which found that you were suitable for a Community Corrections Order.  Having queried myself in relation to such an order in view of the statements recently made in Boulton by the Court of Appeal, in my view such an order in the circumstances of this case does address the requirements of the application of the relevant sentencing principles.

18General deterrence, as I have mentioned, together with denunciation and punishment and also aspects of specific deterrence, which despite your lack of priors, are still relevant given your history of drug use and relapse, must be considered as well as your prospects of rehabilitation. 

19Ultimately, my view is that the long term benefit of the community, in the sense of the benefit of protection which can accrue to it, is best achieved by an order which has some punitive aspects but which also addresses the issues which have set you on a course of criminality from which you need intervention to ensure dissuasion, reclamation and rehabilitation.

20In my view, incarceration in these circumstances would be a dull instrument to apply for these purposes.  I intend to order that on all the charges on which you have pleaded guilty you will be convicted and made subject to a Community Corrections Order for 18 months. 

21You will perform 350 hours of unpaid community work.  You will be supervised by the Correctional Services and receive assessment treatment and rehabilitation for drug dependency and abuse as well as mental health issues including psychological counselling. 

22I have signed forfeiture and disposal orders.  I note in the sentence and in the record of the court that you have served 57 days by way of pre-sentence detention.  But for your plea I would have sentenced you to 22 months' imprisonment.  Are there any other orders that are required?

23MR MATIN:  No, Your Honour.

24HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  I will hand down those forfeiture and disposal orders.  I will just stand down - sorry?

25MS HARTNETT:  Sorry, Your Honour, I wonder if I can just clarify and I may have misunderstood ‑ ‑ ‑ 

26HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

27MS HARTNETT:  I understand Your Honour has imposed a Community Corrections Order on all matters ‑ ‑ ‑ 

28HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

29MS HARTNETT:  ‑ ‑ ‑ and Your Honour has made note of the 57 days.  Is that the term of imprisonment - a sentence as well on those matters ‑ ‑ ‑ 

30HIS HONOUR:  No, no, no.  I've simply noted that he has ‑ ‑ ‑ 

31MS HARTNETT:  No, thank you.

32HIS HONOUR:  ‑ ‑ ‑ that he has served those days by way of pre-sentence detention.  I don't say anything about whether that's in mitigation of penalty or otherwise. 

33MS HARTNETT:  Yes.

34HIS HONOUR:  I've simply noted that he's done 57 days.

35MS HARTNETT:  Thank you, sir.

36HIS HONOUR:  I am going to just stand down and wait outside for the paperwork and when it is ready I will sign it.

37MS HARTNETT:  Thank you, sir.

38HIS HONOUR:  I take it he's no longer in custody?

39MS HARTNETT:  No.

40

HIS HONOUR:  He can step out of the dock, come and sit behind

Ms Hartnett.

41VOICE (from body of court):  (Indistinct words).

42HIS HONOUR:  That's all right, he can remain there for a moment.  He'll sign the material and be released from the cells downstairs.

43MS HARTNETT:  If Your Honour pleases.

44(Short adjournment.)

45HIS HONOUR:  Mr Lloyd, I should tell you that this is not an easy option for you.  You might have resolved all the issues outstanding in court but your recent history is fraught with danger for you.  Such an order requires you to attend appointments, to attend to community work and other supervision and if you do not take up the opportunity that this order gives you with both hands, you are likely to find yourself before me again having breached that order.

46If you do then my options become very limited in terms of what I can do with you.  But certainly one indication if you breach the order is that you just have not put enough effort into it and you are not interested in moving on with your life now  All you need to do is comply and you will be able to get on.  Hopefully you will get a job and move on with your life but this crucial period of time to come is really a matter entirely for you. 

47If you want to keep coming back here and if you want to keep spending time either on remand or doing prison time in these, that are supposed to be the best years of your life, then that is going to be a matter that is dependent entirely on your choice.

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